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Professor Jeff King gives evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee on the rule of law.
26 April 2025
On 26 March 2025, GCDC Deputy Director Professor Jeff King gave oral evidence to the House of Lords Constitution Committee as part of its inquiry on the rule of law. The inquiry seeks to explore understandings of the concept of the rule of law and how it operates in practice across different arms of government.
Professor King began his contribution by explaining the overarching idea behind the rule of law: that public and private power should be governed by law, and that there should be no room for the exercise of arbitrary power. He further noted that the rule of law requires that laws are clear, open, stable, and generally prospective in nature; and that there is meaningful access to independent and impartial courts for the resolution of legal disputes.
Additionally, Professor King observed that beyond this ‘thin’ notion of the rule of law – on which there is wide consensus – there is also a ‘thick’ conception that has generated some debate. On the thick view, protection of human rights and respect for international law are key components of the rule of law. Professor King suggested that some make this claim because there is in practice a mutually supportive connection between respect for human rights and respect for the rule of law. Accordingly, many indices produced by international organisations recognise that the rule of law requires something broader than the thin view of the concept suggests.
Addressing the idea of the so-called ‘rule of lawyers’, Professor King cautioned against elevating such slogans into scholarly discourse, pointing out that the term originated in the context of a culture war about the legal system at the time rather than as a serious academic concept. He also commented on the relationship between the rule of law and democracy, arguing that the rule of law is crucial – in both a grand and a mundane sense – to a functioning democracy.
Finally, Professor King ended by outlining key actors and institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law in the UK. Within government, the Lord Chancellor, the Attorney General, and the Government Legal Service play the most important role. In Parliament, responsibility falls largely on select committees such as the Constitution Committee, the Delegated Powers Committee, the Joint Committee on Human Rights, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, and the Justice Committee. He also highlighted the role of professional regulatory bodies such as the Bar Council, the Law Society, and the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Other key actors are civil society, academics, the media, think tanks, and the courts and tribunals. Among these groups, Professor King concluded, there has generally been a strong consensus on what the rule of law requires.
Also giving evidence at the session were Dr Jan van Zyl Smit, Director of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law; and Professor Adam Tomkins, John Millar Professor of Public Law at the University of Glasgow. The full session is available to watch on parliamentlive.tv.